Change In The American Art Museum: The (An) Art Historian'S Voice

10.1163/ej.9789004174993.i-542.72

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Chapter Summary

In recent years, museum policy regarding acquisition has been the subject of much discussion. Virtually all of the countries of origin now have their own departments of antiquities and museums. One major art museum has recently mounted an exhibition of a private collection of antiquities, and some of the best scholars in the field, when invited to work on the show, decided not to do so. Some museums have been more active than others in collecting antiquities, occasionally quite openly, other times hiding behind spurious documentation that they and everyone else knows has been contrived by interested parties involved in the sale. University museums have been more willing to abide by the UNESCO agreement and refrain from acquiring objects that cannot be demonstrated to have come out before its implementation in the early 1970s.